[ISN] ID theft hits 3.3 million college students

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:21:36 -0600 (CST)
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/89307862.html

By Kevin Diaz
Star Tribune
March 27, 2010

WASHINGTON -- A Minnesota company that processes loans for students 
nationwide has reported a major theft of "personally identifiable 
information" involving 3.3 million students after a break-in last 
weekend at its Oakdale headquarters.

U.S. Department of Education officials said it is believed to be one of 
the biggest cases of student identity theft in the nation, affecting 5 
percent of all students with federal loans in the United States.

ECMC, founded 16 years ago as Educational Credit Management Corp., said 
Friday that the stolen data include names, addresses, dates of birth and 
Social Security numbers. No bank account or other financial information 
was included in the data.

In an e-mail Friday to several members of Congress that was obtained by 
the Star Tribune, company chief executive Richard Boyle said the theft 
occurred from a "secured location at ECMC involving portable media with 
ECMC student loan borrowers' personally identifiable information."

According to Boyle, the company is "not aware of any instance of this 
data being misused."

[...]


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Received on Fri Mar 26 2010 - 23:21:36 PDT

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